PANJIM: The Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) will be on five-day visit to Goa from January 21, to inspect all three linear project sites – double tracking of railway lines, power transmission and national highway expansion – passing through the protected areas of Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park.
The CEC headed by PV Jaykrishnan, and having Amarnath Shetty, Mahendra Vyas and Amicus Curiae ADN Rao as members, will be in Goa till January 24.
The CEC’s visit comes following a complaint filed by Goa Foundation, against approvals granted to the infrastructure projects by the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBW). During the hearings held last month, the CEC had come down heavily on the State and Central authorities pointing out that it had received a large number of complaints against these projects, which are being strongly opposed by the locals.
As per the schedule, the team will arrive in Goa on January 20 evening and will halt at Bondla. On January 21, the CEC will conduct site visits of the proposed four laning of the National Highway 4A falling in Goa and Karnataka and the proposed alignment of Goa Tamnar Transmission Line in the Kali tiger reserve and forest areas falling in Karnataka.
This will be followed by discussions with the concerned officials of the Karnataka Government and project proponents.
The CEC team will inspect the proposed double tracking of the railway line from Tinaghat to Kulem on January 22. The site visit will be by rail inspection car.
Next day, the site inspection will be of the proposed LILO of Goa Tamnar Transmission Line project and Mormugao Port Trust (MPT). During the visit, meetings and discussions will be held with State authorities and project proponents.
The CEC in its letter to the Chief Secretaries of Goa and Karnataka has said that during the site inspection, necessary precautionary measures may be put in place in the context of COVID-19.
